Jimmy Feehan is glad to be back on the field

By Stephen Barry

Tipperary’s defeat to Wicklow recently brought their 2026 campaign to an end but the game was personal triumph for Jimmy Feehan, who was happy to come through a “long 12 months” to start his first match since May 2025.

The Tipperary centurion, who reached the 100-game mark against the Garden County last year, went under the knife for an ankle ligament reconstruction last July.

Feehan reflected that the injury took far longer to heal than expected.

“It was the Sligo game last year, I felt it. Then the Kildare game, hurt it in that. Then I saw the consultant and they said I needed the procedure,” he revealed.

“I thought it was going to be a lot quicker of a journey, but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. You just have to put up with it. You can't complain. No one will feel sorry for you at this level. You just put your shoulder to the wheel and get back training and do as much as you can to get back right.

“You put in a lot of work in the gym and it's hard to sometimes keep coming back every night. If the results are good at the weekend, you bounce into training on Tuesday. If they're not going well, it's a bit harder.

“It was difficult, but it gives you a chance to go off and do other things. You can go off on holidays and you can go to weddings and you can really enjoy yourself.

There are pluses and minuses, but you'll never replace playing a championship game.”

The 2020 Munster champion put any after effects out of his mind when he made his return in recent weeks, saying: “You just put the head down and stay going. You worry about pain after.”

Feehan added that the “green shoots” from Philly Ryan’s tenure had been carried on by Niall Fitzgerald.

“The transition of players was probably too quick. We were losing a lot of lads at 26, 27, 28 before they got into their prime,” he added.

“Hopefully now there's a good few of them boys there. They're living together in college, they're great friends, and they'll pull everyone together. That makes a huge difference when there's five or six lads in two houses and they're all coming together. They have a great old bond.”

Manager Niall Fitzgerald lauded the Killenaule clubman post-match, saying: “Jimmy has gone through hell with a really bad injury.

“We were maybe thinking he'd never get back, but he was just exceptional. I'm so happy to see him back there.

“To play the full game, it's actually ridiculous. I genuinely don't know how he finished the game. It's superhuman stuff. And then to back up with that performance, it was incredible.”